US10681520B2 - Ability to trigger beacon receiver devices in a short-range wireless beacon communication system - Google Patents
Ability to trigger beacon receiver devices in a short-range wireless beacon communication system Download PDFInfo
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- US10681520B2 US10681520B2 US16/473,034 US201716473034A US10681520B2 US 10681520 B2 US10681520 B2 US 10681520B2 US 201716473034 A US201716473034 A US 201716473034A US 10681520 B2 US10681520 B2 US 10681520B2
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
- H04W4/00—Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
- H04W4/80—Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
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- G—PHYSICS
- G01—MEASURING; TESTING
- G01S—RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES
- G01S1/00—Beacons or beacon systems transmitting signals having a characteristic or characteristics capable of being detected by non-directional receivers and defining directions, positions, or position lines fixed relatively to the beacon transmitters; Receivers co-operating therewith
- G01S1/02—Beacons or beacon systems transmitting signals having a characteristic or characteristics capable of being detected by non-directional receivers and defining directions, positions, or position lines fixed relatively to the beacon transmitters; Receivers co-operating therewith using radio waves
- G01S1/022—Means for monitoring or calibrating
- G01S1/024—Means for monitoring or calibrating of beacon transmitters
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- H04W4/06—Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
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Definitions
- the present invention generally relates to the field of beacon communication systems comprising one or more short-range wireless beacon transmitter devices and one or more short-range wireless beacon receiver devices. More specifically, the invention relates to a short-range wireless beacon communication system with improved ability to trigger beacon receiver devices. The invention also relates to a method of operating such a beacon communication system, and to an associated short-range wireless beacon transmitter device.
- Short-range wireless beacon transmitter devices are used at various sites, such as shops, restaurants, cultural venues and sport arenas, to attract attention from nearby users of beacon receiver devices in the form of mobile communication devices, such as mobile terminals like smartphones or tablets.
- mobile communication devices such as mobile terminals like smartphones or tablets.
- the abbreviated notion mobile devices will be used herein when referring to such mobile communication devices. While the beacon receiver devices by nature are mobile, the beacon transmitter devices may be either stationary in the sense that they are installed at fixed locations, or they too may be mobile as will be described in more detail later.
- the iBeacon technology from Apple allows for mobile devices to understand their location on a micro-local scale, and also allows delivery of hyper-contextual content to the users of mobile devices based on their current location.
- the iBeacon technology is based on the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) standard, and more particularly on Generic Access Profile (GAP) advertising packets.
- BLE Bluetooth Low Energy
- GAP Generic Access Profile
- a beacon transmitter device In a basic short-range wireless beacon communication system based on the BLE standard, a beacon transmitter device repeatedly broadcasts a short-range wireless beacon advertisement signal in a 31-byte GAP BLE packet.
- the beacon advertisement signal contains a 128-bit universally unique identifier, UUID.
- the beacon advertisement signal may also include a 16-bit major portion and a 16-bit minor portion.
- the beacon signal identifies a beacon region associated with the beacon transmitter device. Whereas, as is commonly known, a geographical region is an area defined by a circle of a specified radius around a known point on the Earth's surface, a beacon region is in contrast an area defined by a mobile device's proximity to one or more beacon transmitter devices.
- the beacon region is represented by the UUID, the major portion and the minor portion in the beacon advertisement signal. In other implementations, the beacon region is represented by the UUID and the major or minor portion in the beacon signal. In still other implementations, the beacon region is represented by the UUID alone.
- additional beacon transmitter devices may also repeatedly broadcast a short-range wireless beacon signal for the same beacon region as a first beacon transmitter device, using a beacon advertisement signal having the same content.
- each mobile device is provided with an application program, app, which is configured to detect and react on short-range wireless beacon signals, such as the aforementioned beacon advertisement signal, with support from the underlying operating system.
- apps in mobile devices can detect and react on beacons in two ways, monitoring and ranging. Monitoring enables the app to detect movement in and out of the beacon region (i.e., whether the mobile device is within or outside of the range of any of the beacon transmitter devices with which the beacon region is associated). Hence, monitoring allows the app to scan for beacon regions.
- Ranging is more granular and provides a list of beacon transmitter devices in range, together with their respective received signal strength, which may be used to estimate a distance to each of them. Hence, ranging allows the app to detect and react on individual beacon transmitter devices in a beacon region.
- apps may be handled by the operating system of the mobile device in different modes.
- the most prominent mode is the active mode, in which the app executes in the foreground and is typically capable of interacting with the user of the mobile device and also to communicate with an external device such as a server via the short-range wireless beacon interface and/or another communication interface.
- short-range wireless beacon communication ranging only works when the app is in active mode.
- the app in the mobile device may detect that it has entered the beacon region from the UUID (and the major/minor as the case may be) contained in the beacon advertisement signal, and react as appropriate in some way which is beneficial to the user and/or the host of the beacon transmitter device and which often involves interaction between the app in the mobile device and a service provider over a broadband communication network.
- a system server may also be included in some implementations.
- Examples of such beneficial use include, without limitation, determining a current approximate position of the mobile device by retrieving a predefined position of the beacon transmitter device from the service provider or by cross reference with local lookup data, or retrieving content from the service provider.
- An active mobile device may receive and react to additional transmissions of the beacon advertisement signal from the beacon transmitter device; this may be useful for instance if the content associated with the host of the beacon transmitter device is updated or changed.
- an active mobile device may receive and react to beacon advertisement signals from other beacon transmitter devices nearby, provided of course that they are within range of the respective beacon transmitter device, or move closer to it. This is so irrespective of whether the different beacon transmitter devices advertise the same beacon region (i.e. contain the same UUID and major/minor in the respective beacon advertisement signals), or different beacon regions (provided that the app is configured to monitor for such different beacon regions). It is to be noticed that the same beacon region (e.g. same UUID) is very often used for different beacon transmitter devices hosted by the same host, such as within the same supermarket, arena, fastfood restaurant, etc.
- the operating system of the mobile devices may also handle apps in apassive mode.
- a purpose of the passive mode is power preservation, since the mobile devices are typically powered by batteries and since it is a general technical ambition to maximize the operational time of a mobile device between successive charging sessions.
- the passive mode the app executes in the background or is only installed on the mobile device. Unlike ranging which only works when the app is in active mode, monitoring works when the app is in active mode as well as when the app is in passive mode.
- Transitions between active mode and passive mode may be based on user interaction, user preference settings in the app or the operating system, or program logic in the app or the operating system.
- a mobile device where the app is in passive mode is referred to as a passive mobile device in this document.
- the app In the passive mode, the app typically cannot interact with the user via the user interface, nor communicate with a server or another device—except for the following.
- a nearby passive mobile device may monitor for a beacon region and hence receive a short-range wireless beacon advertisement signal if it is within range of the beacon transmitter device in question.
- the passive mobile device after a short beacon scanning period in the monitoring, during which the beacon transmitter device is discoverable and also communication with a server or another device is possible, and unless it switches to active mode, the passive mobile device will not be able to react to additional beacon advertisement signals for the same beacon region from the beacon transmitter device.
- the passive mobile device will be “ignorant” or “deaf to”, i.e. not react on, additional beacon advertisement signals for the same beacon region for as long as it stays in passive mode and continues to detect such beacon advertisement signals, for instance because it remains within range of the beacon transmitter device and continues to detect its beacon advertisement signal.
- a “deafened out” state will last for a certain time, which in a typical prior art implementation is at least 30 seconds to avoid false positives due to effects in the radio signal environment (e.g. multi-propagation delay).
- the “deafened out” state may however often last substantially longer than 30 seconds, sometimes as long as about 15 minutes depending on operational factors such as, for instance, battery level, power consumption or operating system scheduling in the passive mobile device. Only once the passive mobile device has not received the beacon advertisement signal, or any other beacon communication which advertises the same beacon region, for a certain time, such as 1-15 minutes, the passive mobile device will again be reactive to the beacon advertisement signal, or any other beacon communication which advertises the same beacon region.
- the present inventors have identified challenges associated with passive mobile devices as referred to above.
- beacon transmitter device It is a problem for the host of the beacon transmitter device, since it will prevent the host from advertising for new or updated content. It is also a problem to the passive mobile device, since it will be deprived of an opportunity to react on the beacon advertisement signal during the period when it is “deafened out”.
- beacon transmitter device when there are several beacon transmitter devices in the beacon region, a passive mobile device will be locked to the beacon transmitter device which it first discovered in the beacon region for as long as it stays within range of that beacon transmitter device's beacon signal. This is, again, problematic both from the point of view of the passive mobile device itself and for the host of the beacon transmitter devices, for the reasons explained above.
- the host of the beacon transmitter devices will not be able to track the movement of the passive mobile device and broadcast an adapted service offer to the user of the passive mobile device as a result of the movement (such as, for instance, offering a first content when the user is in a first subarea where a first beacon transmitter device is located and a different, second content when the user is in a second subarea where a second beacon transmitter device is located).
- an adapted service offer to the user of the passive mobile device as a result of the movement (such as, for instance, offering a first content when the user is in a first subarea where a first beacon transmitter device is located and a different, second content when the user is in a second subarea where a second beacon transmitter device is located).
- beacon-based localization functionality for the purpose of determining the location of the user with a high degree of accuracy by means of triangulation based on several stationary beacon transmitter devices covering the same beacon region, for instance indoors
- a passive mobile device will not be able to update its estimated location caused by the movement, since the second beacon transmitter device will not be detected when the passive mobile device is still within range of the first beacon transmitter device.
- the technology which can be referred to as a “bubble” concept, is based on short-range wireless beacon broadcast messaging for establishing a dynamic, proximity-based network. Interaction between the users of the mobile devices in the network is supported by broadband network communication with a server.
- a short-range wireless beacon system based on mobile beacon transmitter devices is shown in FIG. 3A . While it can generally be used for various different purposes, the system in FIG. 3A is advantageously used for implementing the above-mentioned bubble concept.
- each mobile device A 1 , A 2 , A 3 , A 4 , P 1 is provided with an app which (together with the operating system and hardware in the mobile device) is configured to handle transmission as well as reception of short-range wireless beacon signals.
- each mobile device can act as a beacon transmitting device as well as a beacon receiving device.
- the mobile device A 1 is in active mode and repeatedly broadcasts its short-range wireless beacon advertisement signal BA, containing a 128-bit universally unique identifier UUID as well as a device identifier within the 32-bit major/minor portion of the beacon signal.
- Other active mobile devices A 2 , A 3 , A 4 within a proximity zone (range) of the mobile device A 1 can receive the beacon advertisement signal BA, read the UUID and the device identifier, and as a result contact a system server SS over a broadband communication network (NW) 300 .
- the app in the receiving mobile device may decide, for instance based on user interaction, user preference settings and/or program logic in the app, to join the bubble of the mobile device A 1 , wherein the system server SS will register the receiving mobile device as belonging to the bubble of the mobile device A 1 .
- the beacon advertisement signal BA from the mobile device A 1 serves for announcing to the mobile devices A 2 , A 3 , A 4 in the proximity of the mobile device A 1 about the availability of a dynamic ad-hoc network PZ 1 of beacon transmitter devices, i.e. the bubble which the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device A 1 is a member of.
- the users of the bubble members A 1 -A 4 may then, for instance, share content or conduct social media interaction supported by the system server SS and/or a service provider SP over the broadband communication network 300 .
- the passive mobile device P 1 may also be passive mobile devices within the proximity zone of the active mobile device A 1 . This is seen for a passive mobile device P 1 in FIG. 3A .
- the passive mobile device P 1 will also receive the beacon signal BA as identified by the UUID. However, if the mobile device P 1 remains in passive mode, it will not be able to react to additional transmissions of the beacon signal BA from the active mobile device A 1 for the reasons explained above. The passive mobile device P 1 will therefore not be reactive to additional transmissions of the beacon signal BA from the active mobile device A 1 during the “deafened out” state.
- the active mobile devices A 1 , A 2 and A 3 may react to the beacon advertisement signal and hence join the bubble of the active mobile device A 4 (for example), this is not so for the passive mobile device P 1 if it has already have detected the beacon advertisement signal of the first active mobile device A 1 (for example) and thus been deafened out.
- a problem from the point of view of the passive mobile device P 1 is that it will not have any opportunity to hear the beacon advertisement signals as identified by the common UUID and as a result not be given any opportunity to join other bubbles than the bubble of the first active mobile device A 1 (for example).
- a problem from the point of view of the active mobile devices A 2 , A 3 and A 4 is correspondingly that they will not be aware of the presence of the passive mobile device P 1 within their respective proximity zones, nor be able to announce their availability as bubble creators to the passive mobile device P 1 .
- the present inventors have identified several problems with beacon communications systems of the prior art. In addition to the observations above, the present inventors have also identified a need for improved triggering of beacon receiver devices in beacon communications systems to cause an individual beacon receiver device or a group of beacon receiver devices to perform an action.
- One aspect of the present invention is a beacon communication system comprising a short-range wireless beacon transmitter device and a short-range wireless beacon receiver device.
- the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device is configured to repeatedly transmit a short-range wireless beacon advertisement signal on a first beacon broadcast channel, the first beacon broadcast channel being defined by a predefined unique identity included in the short-range wireless beacon advertisement signal, the predefined unique identity remaining fixed between subsequent transmissions of the short-range wireless beacon advertisement signal.
- the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device is furthermore configured to temporarily transmit a short-range wireless beacon trigger signal on an alternate beacon broadcast channel, the alternate beacon broadcast channel being defined by a dynamically allocated unique identity included in the short-range wireless beacon trigger signal, the dynamically allocated unique identity being different from the predefined unique identity and being different between subsequent transmissions of the short-range wireless beacon trigger signal.
- Another aspect of the present invention is a method of operating a beacon communication system which comprises a short-range wireless beacon transmitter device and a short-range wireless beacon receiver device.
- the method involves repeatedly transmitting, by the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device, a short-range wireless beacon advertisement signal on a first beacon broadcast channel, the first beacon broadcast channel being defined by a predefined unique identity included in the short-range wireless beacon advertisement signal, the predefined unique identity remaining fixed between subsequent transmissions of the short-range wireless beacon advertisement signal.
- the method also involves temporarily transmitting, by the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device, a short-range wireless beacon trigger signal on an alternate beacon broadcast channel, the alternate beacon broadcast channel being defined by a dynamically allocated unique identity included in the short-range wireless beacon trigger signal, the dynamically allocated unique identity being different from the predefined unique identity and being different between subsequent transmissions of the short-range wireless beacon trigger signal.
- Still another aspect of the present invention is a short-range wireless beacon transmitter device for use in a beacon communication system which furthermore comprises a short-range wireless beacon receiver device.
- the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device is configured to repeatedly transmit a short-range wireless beacon advertisement signal on a first beacon broadcast channel, the first beacon broadcast channel being defined by a predefined unique identity included in the short-range wireless beacon advertisement signal, the predefined unique identity remaining fixed between subsequent transmissions of the short-range wireless beacon advertisement signal.
- the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device is moreover configured to temporarily transmit a short-range wireless beacon trigger signal on an alternate beacon broadcast channel, the alternate beacon broadcast channel being defined by a dynamically allocated unique identity included in the short-range wireless beacon trigger signal, the dynamically allocated unique identity being different from the predefined unique identity and being different between subsequent transmissions of the short-range wireless beacon trigger signal.
- FIG. 1A illustrates a short-range wireless beacon system having a short-range wireless beacon transmitter device and a short-range wireless beacon receiver device, wherein the beacon transmitter device is configured to repeatedly transmit a short-range wireless beacon advertisement signal on a first beacon broadcast channel.
- FIG. 1B illustrates the short-range wireless beacon communication system of FIG. 1A , wherein the beacon transmitter device is furthermore configured to temporarily transmit a short-range wireless beacon trigger signal on an alternate beacon broadcast channel.
- FIG. 2 is a schematic timing diagram illustrating the repeated transmission of the short-range wireless beacon advertisement signal on the first beacon broadcast channel according to FIG. 1A and the temporary transmission of the short-range wireless beacon trigger signal on the alternate beacon broadcast channel according to FIG. 1B .
- FIGS. 3A-3F are illustrations of a chain of activities occurring in a beacon communication system generally designed according to one embodiment of the system in FIGS. 1A and 1B .
- FIG. 4 is an illustration of a chain of events occurring in a beacon communication system generally designed according to another embodiment of the system in FIGS. 1A and 1B .
- FIG. 5 illustrates a general method according to the invention of operating a short-range wireless beacon communication system with improved ability to trigger beacon receiver devices.
- FIGS. 6A and 6B are schematic views of a mobile communication device according to two respective embodiments.
- FIG. 7 is a schematic view of components of the mobile communication device in FIG. 6A or 6B .
- FIG. 8 is a schematic view of a computer-readable medium.
- FIG. 1A illustrates a short-range wireless beacon communication system 100 having a short-range wireless beacon transmitter device 110 and a short-range wireless beacon receiver device 120 .
- the beacon transmitter device 100 is configured to repeatedly transmit a short-range wireless beacon advertisement signal BA 112 on a first beacon broadcast channel 114 .
- the first beacon broadcast channel 114 is defined by a predefined unique identity (PUID) which is included in the short-range wireless beacon advertisement signal BA 112 .
- the predefined unique identity PUID remains fixed between subsequent transmissions of the short-range wireless beacon advertisement signal BA 112 .
- the predefined unique identity PUID may typically represent a universally unique identifier (UUID) value.
- the short-range wireless beacon system 100 also preferably comprises a server 130 , which is only schematically indicated in FIG. 1A .
- the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device 110 and the short-range wireless beacon receiver device 120 may interact 132 , 134 with the server 130 .
- the operation of the beacon communication system 100 as described above may be essentially the same as for a beacon communication system according to the description in the background section above. This part of the operation is summarized in a step 510 in FIG. 5 .
- the beacon communication system 100 comprises novel and inventive functionality as follows. Also see steps 520 and 530 in FIG. 5 .
- the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device 110 is configured to temporarily transmit a short-range wireless beacon trigger signal BT 116 on an alternate beacon broadcast channel 118 .
- the alternate beacon broadcast channel is defined by a dynamically allocated unique identity (DAUID) which is included in the short-range wireless beacon trigger signal BT 116 as seen in FIG. 2 .
- the dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID is different from the predefined unique identity PUID.
- the dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID is also different between subsequent transmissions of the short-range wireless beacon trigger signal BT 116 .
- the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device 110 is configured to temporarily transmit the short-range wireless beacon trigger signal BT 1 116 on the alternate beacon broadcast channel 118 at a single occasion with a first value DAUID 1 of the dynamically allocated unique identity.
- the purpose of the short-range wireless beacon trigger signal 116 is to cause the receiving short-range wireless beacon receiver device 120 to perform an activity 530 .
- the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device 110 will temporarily transmit the short-range wireless beacon trigger signal BT 2 116 on the alternate beacon broadcast channel 118 , again at a single occasion but with a second value DAUID 2 of the dynamically allocated unique identity.
- the first and second values DAUID 1 and DAUID 2 of the dynamically allocated unique identity which defines the alternate beacon broadcast channel 118 for the short-range wireless beacon trigger signal BT 1 /BT 2 116 will be different from each other and also from the fixed predefined unique identity PUID which defines the first beacon broadcast channel 114 for the short-range wireless beacon advertisement signal BA 112 .
- Each value DAUID 1 and DAUID 2 of the dynamically allocated unique identity will typically only be used once, hence being temporary in contrast to the repeated use of the predefined unique identity PUID.
- a fixed predefined unique identity PUID to define the first beacon broadcast channel 114 for the short-range wireless beacon advertisement signal BA 112 and, on the other hand, a dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID 1 , DAUID 2 to define the alternate beacon broadcast channel 118 for the short-range wireless beacon trigger signal 116 , is particularly advantageous.
- the short-range wireless beacon advertisement signal BA 112 will maintain the ability of the short-range wireless beacon advertisement signal BA 112 to cause short-range wireless beacon receiver devices in proximity of the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device 110 to register their presence (for instance by contacting 134 the server 130 ), like in a beacon communication system according to the description in the background section above.
- the fixed predefined unique identity PUID will then be registered in the apps of the short-range wireless beacon receiver devices and allow them to monitor for the fixed predefined unique identity PUID and hence discover short-range wireless beacon transmitter devices using this predefined unique identity PUID in their beacon advertisement signals BA.
- the use of PUID as well as DAUID 1 /DAUID 2 in the beacon communication system 100 will also allow improved triggering of the wireless beacon receiver device 120 when it is in passive mode, and/or allow selective triggering of individual wireless beacon receiver devices or groups of such devices in the beacon communication system 100 .
- the dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID 1 /DAUID 2 included in the short-range wireless beacon trigger signal BT 1 /BT 2 116 is adapted to be received by said short-range wireless beacon receiver device 120 but not by other short-range wireless beacon receiver devices in proximity of the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device 110 .
- the dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID 1 /DAUID 2 included in the short-range wireless beacon trigger signal BT 1 /BT 2 116 is adapted to be received by all short-range wireless beacon receiver devices, including the short-range wireless beacon receiver device 120 , in proximity of the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device 110 .
- the dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID 1 /DAUID 2 included in the short-range wireless beacon trigger signal BT 1 /BT 2 116 is adapted to be received by a subset of all short-range wireless beacon receiver devices in proximity of the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device 110 , wherein the subset includes the short-range wireless beacon receiver device 120 .
- FIGS. 3A-3F are illustrations of a chain of activities occurring in a beacon communication system 100 ′ as one exemplifying embodiment of the general beacon communication system 100 in FIGS. 1A and 1B .
- the system 100 is advantageously used for implementing the above-mentioned bubble concept, i.e. the formation of a dynamic ad-hoc network PZ 1 of mobile devices A 1 , A 2 , A 3 , A 4 and P 1 in proximity of the mobile device A 1 .
- each mobile device can act as a beacon transmitting device as well as a beacon receiving device.
- the app in the receiving mobile device may decide, for instance based on user interaction, user preference settings and/or program logic in the app, to join the bubble of the mobile device A 1 , wherein the system server SS will register the receiving mobile device as belonging to the bubble of the mobile device A 1 .
- the beacon advertisement signal BA from the mobile device A 1 serves for announcing to the mobile devices A 2 , A 3 , A 4 in the proximity of the mobile device A 1 about the availability of the dynamic ad-hoc network PZ 1 of beacon transmitter devices, i.e. the bubble which the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device A 1 is a member of.
- the short-range wireless beacon advertisement signal BA is adapted for causing short-range wireless beacon receiver devices A 2 -A 4 in proximity of the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device A 1 to contact the server SS 130 over the broadband network 300 to register their presence in the proximity of the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device A 1 .
- a passive mobile device P 1 may also be reached 308 by the beacon advertisement signal BA from the mobile device A 1 when the passive mobile device P 1 approaches the proximity zone of the mobile device A 1 , as seen at 302 - 306 .
- the passive mobile device P 1 may contact 310 the server SS 130 over the broadband network 300 to register its presence in the proximity of the mobile device A 1 and join the dynamic ad-hoc network PZ 1 (i.e. the bubble) around the mobile device A 1 .
- the dynamic ad-hoc network PZ 1 i.e. the bubble
- the dynamically allocated unique identity will be set to a first value DAUID 1 which is different from the predefined unique identity PUID used in the beacon advertisement signal BA of the mobile device A 1 (and which will also be different from subsequently generated versions of the dynamically allocated unique identity, cf second value DAUID 2 for the second temporary transmission of the short-range wireless beacon trigger signal BT 2 116 on the alternate beacon broadcast channel 118 in the description of FIG. 2 ).
- step 312 occurs between the server SS and the passive mobile device P 1 , and the initiative may be the server's SS or the passive mobile device's P 1 , depending on implementation.
- the dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID 1 is generated by the server SS, for instance by using a predefined storage of unique and hitherto unused UUID:s and setting the dynamically allocated unique identity to one of these values, namely DAUID 1 , or by using a random number generator, etc.
- the server SS may either generate the dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID 1 “from scratch” or by using some kind of seed received from or otherwise associated with the passive mobile device P 1 (based, for instance, on a unique identity of the passive mobile device P 1 , like the aforementioned device identifier, a MAC address, etc).
- information about the generated dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID 1 is communicated by the server SS to the mobile device A 1 over the broadband network 300 .
- the mobile device A 1 receives the information 314 about the generated dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID 1 and records that the next time it is desired to reach contact with the passive mobile device P 1 over the beacon signal interface, it shall be done in the form of the beacon trigger signal BT 1 on the alternate beacon broadcast channel 118 , as defined by the dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID 1 . This is seen at 316 in FIG. 3E .
- the generated dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID 1 may be intended for and therefore common to all receiver mobile devices A 2 , A 3 , A 4 , P 1 in the system 100 ′, or to a subset of them.
- the server SS accordingly informs all relevant receiver mobile devices (illustrated by mobile device A 2 in FIG. 3D ; see 314 ′) about the generated dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID 1 .
- the mobile device A 1 will use the recorded information about the generated dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID 1 and set the UUID of the beacon trigger signal BT 1 on the alternate beacon broadcast channel 118 to the retrieved value DAUID 1 .
- the short-range wireless beacon trigger signal BT 1 is adapted for causing the short-range wireless beacon receiver device P 1 to perform an activity 530 , which in the present embodiment may include causing the passive mobile device P 1 , when being in its passive mode, to enter into its short-range wireless beacon scanning mode.
- the passive mobile device P 1 may react 318 by contacting the server SS or a service provider 318 a , or one of the other mobile devices in the system 100 ′ as seen at 318 b .
- information about the dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID 1 generated by the server SS is communicated by the server SS to the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device (e.g. the transmitting mobile device A 1 , like in step 314 in FIG. 3D ), but not to the short-range wireless beacon receiver device (e.g. the receiving passive mobile device P 1 , unlike step 312 in FIG. 3C ).
- the transmitting mobile device A 1 will instead in turn communicate the dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID 1 to the receiving passive mobile device P 1 in a short-range wireless beacon signal.
- the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device e.g. the transmitting mobile device A 1
- the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device is configured to detect an event in the beacon communication system 100 ; 100 ′ and in response send a request over the broadband network 300 to the server SS 130 to cause the server SS 130 to generate the dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID 1 or DAUID 2 (e.g. to initiate the activity 312 in FIG. 3C ).
- Such an event may, for instance, be related to a request for authentication by another short-range wireless beacon receiver device (e.g. A 2 -A 4 ) in proximity of the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device (e.g. A 1 ).
- another short-range wireless beacon receiver device e.g. A 2 -A 4
- the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device e.g. A 1
- Other examples are also conceivable, as is realized by a skilled person. From this also follows that embodiments of the present invention may be applicable not only to passive mobile devices but also to various kinds of short-range wireless beacon receiver devices, including active mobile devices.
- Another example of an event which may initiate the generation of the dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID 1 or DAUID can be an event related to a service offered by a service terminal associated with the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device 110 .
- One example of a relevant beacon communication system 100 ′′ for this example is seen in FIG. 4 .
- a beacon communication system 100 ′′ for providing a service by a service terminal ST to users U 1 , U 2 , U 3 of mobile devices MD 1 , MD 2 , MD 3 is shown in FIG. 4 .
- the service may, for instance, involve a monetary transaction to be performed for a purchase at, for instance, a shop, restaurant, cultural venue or sport arena.
- the service terminal ST may then, for instance, be a point-of-sales terminal, cash register or ticket desk. This scenario will be used as a non-limiting example for the following description.
- the beacon communication system 100 ′′ also comprises a system server SS and a short-range wireless beacon transmitter device BTD.
- the beacon transmitter device BTD may be a stationary (static-location) beacon transmitter device, or a mobile beacon transmitter device for instance in the form of a mobile device which is enabled for beacon communication. Even though shown as separate devices in FIG. 1 , the wireless beacon transmitter device BTD and the service terminal ST may be implemented by one and the same physical device, such as a tablet computer, in some embodiments.
- a service may be provided by the service terminal ST as follows.
- the beacon transmitter device BTD sends 410 a beacon advertisement signal BA 112 as previously discussed. If any of the mobile devices MD 1 , MD 2 , MD 3 are near the beacon transmitter device BTD, i.e. within the beacon region, it may receive the beacon advertisement signal BA 112 .
- the receiving mobile device MD 1 may report to the system server SS that it has received the beacon advertisement signal BA 112 . This is seen at 420 in FIG. 4 . This report is also known as an “entry” event with respect to the beacon region identified in the beacon advertisement signal BA 112 .
- the report includes a received signal strength (e.g. RSSI, Received Signal Strength Indicator) of the beacon advertisement signal BA 112 as received at the mobile device MD 1 .
- the received signal strength may for instance, be expressed as a relative power value in dBm and may typically be obtained by the aforementioned ranging functionality.
- the system server SS registers the report from the mobile device MD 1 .
- the registration may be made in a database SSDB in or associated with the system server SS.
- the registration 430 is made by updating a mobile device record which is kept in the database SSDB and is associated with the mobile device MD 1 , the user U 1 , or both.
- the registration may include making a note in the mobile device record that the mobile device MD 1 has now entered the beacon region, together with a note of the current date and time, and the RSSI.
- the procedure above may be repeated each time the mobile device MD 1 is capable of receiving the repeatedly transmitted beacon advertisement signal BA 112 and reacting by reporting the respective receptions to the system server SS.
- the service terminal ST may initiate a service to the user U 1 of the mobile device MD 1 without requiring the user U 1 of the mobile device MD 1 to interact with the user interface of the mobile device to make this initiative (as is the case in typical prior art e-wallet solutions).
- the service terminal ST may communicate with the system server SS, see 440 in FIG. 4 , and be informed not only of the presence of the mobile device MD 1 in the beacon region associated with the service terminal ST, but in addition also of an estimated distance between the service terminal ST and the mobile device MD 1 .
- a beacon-triggered, distance-based provision of service to the user U 1 is therefore made possible, as will now be described in more detail.
- the service terminal ST communicates with the system server SS in step 440 in FIG. 4 .
- the system server SS obtains an estimated distance between the service terminal ST and the mobile device MD 1 .
- This distance may be obtained in different ways. For instance, the system server SS may retrieve the received signal strength registered in the mobile device record upon the mobile device's reporting in steps 420 - 430 , and convert it into a distance with respect to the location of the beacon transmitter device BTD. If the beacon transmitter device BTD is placed at or immediately near the service terminal ST, the converted distance may be used directly as the estimated distance between the service terminal ST and the mobile device MD 1 . In cases where the beacon transmitter device BTD is not placed at or immediately near the service terminal ST, the converted distance may be combined with a known relative distance between the service terminal ST and the beacon transmitter device BTD to obtain the estimated distance between the service terminal ST and the mobile device MD 1 .
- the system server SS may convert the received signal strength values into distance values already at the registration step 430 . In other implementations, the system server SS may send received signal strength values to the service terminal ST in the communication step 440 , wherein the service terminal ST will itself make the necessary conversion and calculations to obtain the estimated distance between the service terminal ST and the mobile device MD 1 .
- the service terminal ST provides the service to the user U 1 based on the obtained estimated distance.
- the obtained estimated distance may be used to control whether or not the provision of the service to the user U 1 shall be initiated.
- the service terminal ST may check the obtained estimated distance between the service terminal ST and the mobile device MD 1 , and initiate the service only when the estimated distance meets a threshold criterion.
- the threshold criterion is that the estimated distance between the service terminal ST and the mobile device MD 1 is less than a distance between the service terminal ST and another mobile device MD 2 or MD 3 .
- a rationale for this decision is that the service shall only be initiated to the nearest mobile device user in a first-come-first-served fashion representing a queue of customers at the service terminal ST.
- the threshold criterion is that the estimated distance between the service terminal ST and the mobile device MD 1 is less than a certain distance, such as for instance 1 meter, 2 meters, etc.
- a certain distance such as for instance 1 meter, 2 meters, etc.
- the dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID 1 ; DAUID 2 is not generated by the server 130 ; SS but by the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device 110 ; A1; BTD itself. The details of the generation may be the same as has been previously described for the server case.
- the generated dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID 1 ; DAUID 2 is communicated by the short-range wireless beacon transmitter device 110 ; A1; BTD to the short-range wireless beacon receiver device 120 ; P1; MD1 in a short-range wireless beacon signal.
- the beacon transmitter device 110 ; A1; BTD may include the next dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID 2 to be used in the payload of the short-range wireless beacon trigger signal 116 ; BT 1 ; BT 2 containing the current dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID 1 .
- the beacon transmitter device 110 ; A1; BTD may include the next dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID 1 ; DAUID 2 to be used in the payload of the short-range wireless beacon advertisement signal 112 ; BA.
- a beacon receiver device A 2 -A 4 , P 1 ; MD 1 -MD 3 may receive the next dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID 1 , DAUID 2 to be reactive to, at any of these occasions:
- the term “dynamically allocated unique identity” means that the unique identity DAUID 1 ; DAUID 2 , which defines the alternate beacon broadcast channel 118 ) by being included in the short-range wireless beacon trigger signal 116 ; BT 1 ; BT 2 , is not predefined or fixed but is, in contrast, generated at runtime by the server SS (SP) (or, in alternative embodiments, the beacon transmitter device BTD), as the skilled person will realize from the description of this document.
- SP server SS
- BTD beacon transmitter device
- first beacon broadcast channel ( 114 ) and “alternate beacon broadcast channel” ( 118 ), as used in this document, are to be construed to mean logically separable (by the intended receiver) communications over a beacon broadcast medium.
- the logical separation is obtained by including different identities (PUID and DAUID 1 ; DAUID 2 , respectively) in a beacon broadcast signal of any given physical format, wherein these different identities differentiate the first beacon broadcast channel from the alternate beacon broadcast channel.
- the physical beacon broadcast signal format may be hence the same for the beacon advertisement signal and the beacon trigger signal, with the differentiation being made solely by the different identities included in the signals.
- beacon broadcast medium is iBeacon and/or BLE
- these different identities will typically be different values of an UUID.
- the two logical “first beacon broadcast channel” ( 114 ) and “alternate beacon broadcast channel” ( 118 ) are therefore not to be confused with, for instance, the three dedicated physical advertisement channels 37-39 among the physical channels 0-39 in the 2.4 MHz ISM band according to the BLE standard.
- beacon communication system 100 ′ like in FIGS. 3A-3F
- beacon communication system 100 ′′ like in FIG. 4
- Particulars of such a beacon communication system are disclosed in the Swedish patent applications 1450293-4 “ESTABLISHING A GROUP BASED ON AUDIO SIGNALLING”, SE 1451203-2 “COMMUNICATION DEVICE FOR IMPROVED SHARING OF CONTENT”, SE 1400535-9 “SELECTIVE USER INTERACTION IN A DYNAMIC, PROXIMITY-BASED GROUP OF WIRELESS COMMUNICATION DEVICES”, SE 1550357-6 “ASSET AUTHENTICATION IN A DYNAMIC, PROXIMITY-BASED NETWORK OF COMMUNICATION DEVICES”, SE 1451509-2 “COMMUNICATION DEVICE FOR IMPROVED ESTABLISHING OF A CONNECTION BETWEEN DEVICES”, SE 1451509-2 “COMMUNICATION DEVICE FOR IMPROVED ESTABLISHING
- novel and inventive functionally as described herein may enable a more secure management and communication with the subset of users that may detect an audio signal as they may be the only users that are actually able to communicate via the temporary DAUID.
- novel and inventive functionally as described herein may enable an immediate way to reach passive users with a new beacon broadcast, as they may be deafened out otherwise.
- novel and inventive functionally as described herein may enable a possibility to communicate selectively with only a subset of all reachable users as they may be the only users that are actually able to communicate via the temporary DAUID.
- novel and inventive functionally as described herein may enable a more secure authentication of identities as the authentication handshake protocol may be made over a fresh and randomly generated DAUID.
- novel and inventive functionally as described herein may enable a faster way to identify passive mobile users as passive users are contacted with an UUID that has not been used before (i.e. DAUID).
- the communication with passive users may also be triggered by events instead of being based on regular time intervals.
- the novel and inventive functionally as described herein may enable a faster way to identify a passive mobile user that is next in line to pay, as passive users are contacted with an UUID that has not been used before (i.e. DAUID).
- the communication is also more secure as it may be made over a fresh randomly generated DAUID.
- the communication with passive users may also be triggered by the event as the cashier registers a new customer. It is further possible to have an even more secure authentication of identities as the authentication handshake protocol may be made over a fresh randomly generated DAUID.
- FIGS. 6A and 6B generally show a mobile, or wireless, communication device 600 which may implement any of the beacon transmitter devices 110 , beacon receiver devices 120 and mobile devices A 1 -A 4 , P 1 as referred to above.
- the wireless communication device is a mobile telecommunications terminal in the form of a smartphone or a tablet computer (arranged with a wireless communication interface), comprising a housing 610 in which a display 620 is arranged.
- the display 620 is a touch display.
- the display 620 is a non-touch display.
- the smartphone 600 comprises two keys 630 a , 630 b . In this embodiment there are two keys 630 , but any number of keys is possible and depends on the design of the smartphone 600 .
- the smartphone 600 is configured to display and operate a virtual key 635 on the touch display 620 . It should be noted that the number of virtual keys 635 depends on the design of the smartphone 600 and an application that is executed on the smartphone 600 .
- the smartphone 600 may also be equipped with a camera 660 .
- the camera 660 may be a digital camera that is arranged to take video or still photographs by recording images on an electronic image sensor (not shown). In one embodiment the camera 660 may be an external camera. In one embodiment the camera may alternatively be replaced by a source providing an image stream.
- the smartphone 600 may also be equipped with a loudspeaker 640 and a microphone 645 .
- a laptop computer 600 comprises a display 620 and a housing 610 .
- the housing comprises a controller or CPU (not shown) and one or more computer-readable storage media (not shown), such as storage units and internal memory. Examples of storage units are disk drives or hard drives.
- the laptop computer 600 further comprises at least one data port. Data ports can be wired and/or wireless. Examples of data ports are USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports, Ethernet ports or WiFi (according to IEEE standard 802.11) ports. Data ports are configured to enable the laptop computer 600 to connect with other computing devices or a server.
- USB Universal Serial Bus
- Ethernet ports accordinging to IEEE standard 802.11
- the laptop computer 600 further comprises at least one input unit such as a keyboard 630 .
- input units such as a keyboard 630 .
- Other examples of input units are computer mice, touch pads, touch screens or joysticks, to name a few.
- the laptop computer 600 may further be equipped with a camera 660 .
- the camera 660 may be a digital camera that is arranged to take video or still photographs by recording images on an electronic image sensor (not shown).
- the camera 660 may be an external camera.
- the camera may alternatively be replaced by a source providing an image stream.
- the laptop computer 600 may also be equipped with a loudspeaker 640 and a microphone 645 .
- the wireless communication device 600 according to FIG. 6A or FIG. 6B may be configured to detect and track an object, for instance a hand of a user, via the camera 660 .
- FIG. 7 shows a schematic view of the general structure of a communication device according to FIG. 6A or FIG. 6B .
- the device 700 comprises a controller 710 which is responsible for the overall operation of the wireless communication device 700 and is preferably implemented by any commercially available CPU (“Central Processing Unit”), DSP (“Digital Signal Processor”) or any other electronic programmable logic device.
- the controller 710 is configured to read instructions from a memory 740 and execute these instructions to control the operation of the wireless communication device 200 .
- the memory 740 may be implemented using any commonly known technology for computer-readable memories such as ROM, RAM, SRAM, DRAM, CMOS, FLASH, DDR, SDRAM or some other memory technology.
- the memory 740 is used for various purposes by the controller 710 , one of them being for storing application data and program instructions 750 for various software modules in the wireless communication device 700 .
- the software modules may include a real-time operating system, drivers for a user interface 720 , an application handler as well as various applications 750 .
- the wireless communication device 700 further comprises the user interface 720 , which in the devices 700 of FIGS. 6A and 6B is comprised of the display 620 and the keys 630 , 635 .
- the user interface may also comprise the microphone 645 and the loudspeaker 644 .
- the wireless communication device 700 further comprises wireless communication means 730 , which is adapted to allow the wireless communication device 700 to communicate with other devices through the use of different radio frequency technologies. More specifically, the wireless communication means 730 comprises a first communication interface 732 for short-range wireless beacon broadcast messaging.
- the first communication interface 732 may, advantageously, be implemented as an iBeacon and/or Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)/Bluetooth 4.0 compliant communication interface.
- the wireless communication means 730 comprises a second communication interface 734 for communicating with a server like the system server SS and/or the service provider SP via the communication network NW.
- the communication with the server typically occurs at a substantially higher bandwidth than the short-range wireless beacon broadcast messaging.
- the server may be a standalone computing resource external to the wireless communication device 700 , a cloud-based (distributed) computing resource, or, in alternative embodiments, implemented at least partly in and by the wireless communication device 700 .
- the second communication interface 734 may, advantageously, be implemented as a communication interface compliant with IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15, ZigBee, WirelessHART, WiFi, Bluetooth®, WCDMA, HSPA, GSM, UTRAN, UMTS, and LTE, to name a few.
- the wireless communication means 730 may be arranged to communicate according to more than one technology and many different combinations may therefore be available; for example, a smartphone is commonly arranged to communicate according to the Bluetooth® standard, the WiFi standard and the LTE standard.
- the wireless communication device 700 is further equipped with a camera 760 .
- the camera 760 is a digital camera that is arranged to take video or still photographs by recording images on an electronic image sensor (not shown).
- the camera 760 is operably connected to the controller 710 to provide the controller with a video stream 765 , i.e. the series of images captured, for further processing possibly for use in and/or according to one or several of the applications 750 .
- the camera 760 is an external camera or source of an image stream.
- references to ‘computer-readable storage medium’, ‘computer program product’, ‘tangibly embodied computer program’ etc. or a ‘controller’, ‘computer’, ‘processor’ etc. should be understood to encompass not only computers having different architectures such as single/multi-processor architectures and sequential (Von Neumann)/parallel architectures but also specialized circuits such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), application specific circuits (ASIC), signal processing devices and other devices.
- References to computer program, instructions, code etc. should be understood to encompass software for a programmable processor or firmware such as, for example, the programmable content of a hardware device whether instructions for a processor, or configuration settings for a fixed-function device, gate array or programmable logic device etc.
- FIG. 8 shows a schematic view of a computer-readable medium as described in the above.
- the computer-readable medium 830 is in this embodiment a data disc 830 .
- the data disc 830 is a magnetic data storage disc.
- the data disc 830 is configured to carry instructions 831 that when loaded into a controller, such as a processor, executes a method or procedure according to the embodiments disclosed above.
- the data disc 830 is arranged to be connected to or within and read by a reading device 832 , for loading the instructions into the controller.
- a reading device 832 in combination with one (or several) data disc(s) 830 is a hard drive.
- the computer-readable medium can also be other media such as compact discs, digital video discs, flash memories or other memory technologies commonly used.
- the instructions 831 may also be downloaded to a computer data reading device 834 , such as a laptop computer or other device capable of reading computer coded data on a computer-readable medium, by comprising the instructions 831 in a computer-readable signal 833 which is transmitted via a wireless (or wired) interface (for example via the Internet) to the computer data reading device 834 for loading the instructions 831 into a controller.
- a computer data reading device 834 such as a laptop computer or other device capable of reading computer coded data on a computer-readable medium
- the instructions 831 in a computer-readable signal 833 which is transmitted via a wireless (or wired) interface (for example via the Internet) to the computer data reading device 834 for loading the instructions 831 into a controller.
- the computer-readable signal 833 is one type of a computer-readable medium 830 .
- the instructions may be stored in a memory (not shown explicitly in FIG. 8 , but referenced as 740 in FIG. 8 ) of the computer data reading device 834 .
- references to computer program, instructions, code etc. should be understood to encompass software for a programmable processor or firmware such as, for example, the programmable content of a hardware device whether instructions for a processor, or configuration settings for a fixed-function device, gate array or programmable logic device etc.
- a wireless communication device 700 comprising a controller as disclosed above with reference to FIGS. 6A, 6B and 7 , and/or caused to be performed by executing instructions stored on a computer-readable medium as disclosed with reference to FIG. 8 .
- Any server described in this document may generally be implemented by any suitable computing resource, such as a stationary computer, a portable computer, a mobile device, or a cloud computing resource.
- the server has a communication interface for broadband data communication, in accordance with one or more standards or protocols that also the relevant devices in the beacon communication system are compliant with. Examples of such standards include IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15, ZigBee, WirelessHART, WiFi, WCDMA, HSPA, GSM, UTRAN, UMTS, and LTE.
- Such broadband data communication is indicated in the drawings by way of thick outlined arrows, whereas communication of beacon signals is indicated in the drawings by way of thin black arrows.
- the location of applications programs, or apps, as referred to in this document with respect to a hierarchical software model is not critical; hence, they may be located at an application layer or alternatively at a lower layer, such as for instance being part of an operating system.
- beacon system like AltBeacon, URIBeacon and Eddystone, which do not use a UUID but another form of identity (such as a tiny URL) in the 31-byte GAP BLE packet for the beacon advertisement signal.
- first beacon broadcast channel and “alternate beacon broadcast channel” as used herein may be construed to mean logically separable (by the intended receiver) communications over a beacon broadcast medium.
- the logical separation may, for instance, be obtained by including different identities in a beacon broadcast signal of any given format, wherein the different identities differentiate the first beacon broadcast channel from the alternate beacon broadcast channel.
- the beacon broadcast signal format as such may be hence the same for the beacon advertisement signal and the beacon trigger signal, with the differentiation being made solely by the different identities included in the signals.
- the beacon broadcast medium is iBeacon and/or BLE
- such different identities may, for instance, be different values of an UUID (cf PUID, DAUID 1 and DAUID 2 above).
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Abstract
Description
-
- The first time the beacon receiver device A2-A4, P1; MD1-MD3 hears (receives) the short-range wireless
beacon advertisement signal 112; BA on the first beacon broadcast channel and in response contacts the server SS (cf steps 310, 312 inFIGS. 3B and 3C ). The server SS may then inform the beacon receiver device A2-A4, P1; MD1-MD3 about the next dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID1 to be reactive to. - If the beacon receiver device P1 is in passive mode, when it has been awaken by a
beacon trigger signal 116; BT1 containing a dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID1 and in response communicates with the server SS (SP) (cf steps 316, 318, 318 b inFIG. 3E ). The server SS (SP) may then inform the beacon receiver device P1 about the next dynamically allocated unique identity DAUID2 to be reactive to.
- The first time the beacon receiver device A2-A4, P1; MD1-MD3 hears (receives) the short-range wireless
Claims (21)
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SE1651738A SE542441C2 (en) | 2016-12-23 | 2016-12-23 | Improved ability to trigger beacon receiver devices in a short-range wireless beacon communication system |
PCT/SE2017/051348 WO2018117958A1 (en) | 2016-12-23 | 2017-12-22 | Improved ability to trigger beacon receiver devices in a short-range wireless beacon communication system |
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JP2020005024A (en) * | 2018-06-25 | 2020-01-09 | ルネサスエレクトロニクス株式会社 | Terminal authentication device, terminal authentication system and terminal authentication method |
SE543807C2 (en) * | 2019-05-17 | 2021-07-27 | Shortcut Labs Ab | A sensor device, a communication node, a system and methods for determining which mobile communication device is closest to a sensor device |
CN113225666A (en) * | 2020-01-21 | 2021-08-06 | 华为技术有限公司 | Exposure data statistical method and device |
JP2022180087A (en) * | 2021-05-24 | 2022-12-06 | 株式会社東海理化電機製作所 | Communication device, program, and system |
US20230073560A1 (en) * | 2021-09-08 | 2023-03-09 | Capital One Services, Llc | System and method for beacon-based action validation |
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US20200092698A1 (en) | 2020-03-19 |
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SE1651738A1 (en) | 2018-06-24 |
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